First, only account administrators can set permission levels for other users, including themselves. If you're an admin, go to Account > Users to find the permissions settings.
Here's what they each do:
Collaborator: Can see anyone's profile Performance, can operate as (post and engage on behalf of) anyone's profile. Think of this as global read/write permissions. This is the highest trust level.
Team Observer: Can see anyone's profile Performance, can only operate as themselves. Think of this as read/write for their own account, plus global read-only.
Individual Contributor: Can see only their own profile performance, and can only operate as themselves. This is individual read/write with no global access.
Here it is in table format:
Permission Level | View Performance Analytics | Post & Engage On Behalf Of |
Individual Contributor | User's Own Profile Only | User's Own Profile Only |
Team Observer | All Users' Profiles | User's Own Profile Only |
Collaborator | All Users' Profiles | All Users' Profiles |
How to think of the various permissions
Usually, Collaborators are the marketing leaders, agency owners and account managers, and other admins.
Team Observers are analysts, reporting specialists, and others who are mostly working on metrics and updates.
Individual Contributors are end-user clients (if you're a LinkedIn agency) or on a team, they can be individual sales reps or others that you think shouldn't have access to the entire team's performance data.
Let us know if you have any questions about setting permissions for your users!